Monday, September 22, 2008

BEEMAN’S BLOG - SEASON 3 - EPISODE 2

“THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT”(WARNING – SPOILERS ARE PRESENT – IF YOU ARE ALLERGIC TO SPOILERS TAKE PROPER PRECAUTIONS TO PROTECT YOURSELF)

Wow. Two episodes on one night means I gotta write two blogs on one night… Ouch!Tonight’s episode was written by Tim Kring and was directed by me. It’s interesting for the viewer because NBC has designed it on premiere night so that the two episodes run back-to-back with just a brief fade to black and fade up – when the episode re-runs, or on next year’s DVD, we will have to add a “previously on” and add more credits in the first act…

When I first got the script, and began contemplating directing it, I was struck by two things – first that it was cram-packed with story and that all the characters really developed quickly. Also, by our standards – it had a simplicity and lean-ness about it. In fact, in the end it was produced in just a bit more than 10 days – which, for us, is pretty short – we frequently go 11-13 days in production.

I think this is because Tim writes in a very concise way – and designs many of his scenes on the page to be delivered in a way that is straightforward but still impactful. A good example of this is the scene where Claire talks to the camera about “is she still human?” and then steps in front of the train. The design at the script level was for this to all be done in one shot – a camera’s point of view. It was meant to be reminiscent of the pilot, but now Claire is alone without a friend – so she has to set it up on a tripod. From a dramatic standpoint Claire has been told by Sylar that she is “different… special.” What this means exactly will unfold as the season progresses. We also set up, in the first scene, that she can no longer feel pain. Claire is distressed – does this lack of ability to feel physical pain reflect a coming lack of ability to feel emotional pain? If so will she still be human?

The day we shot this was, literally, Hayden Panettiere's first day back on set. Whenever we can, we producer’s try to accommodate the actor’s desires to do other projects – and we’d allowed Hayden to do a movie in Vancouver - I LOVE YOU, BETH COOPER directed by Chris Columbus and starring Samm Levine and Alan Ruck. So, we had waited a month to get her back, and had had to delay the shooting of all of her scenes in episode 1. Ironically, she came back and filmed this scene for episode 2 before all the action scenes of Sylar chasing her around the house in episode 1.

Because the Bennet's were re-set from Texas to California in Season 2 – it’s always been important to me to try to find really California locations for them whenever we can. The script only indicated that she was at “a train track” – but I had the idea to create a train track adjacent to a beachy setting – I set as a goal for the location managers to find a hill that overlooked the ocean with a community of houses in the distance – where we could believe there was a train track.

Of course no location like this really exists – but they found the hill, exactly as I had imagined it. The train and the train tracks are all added digitally. For the main shot, we brought Hayden out to location, but put her in front of a green screen. She acted out her dialogue to camera then turned to an imaginary train and then jumped up and back into a stunt pad that had been laid out below frame for her. Luckily for us, Hayden is remarkably adept at understanding how all of this will look and how to work within this highly imaginary scenario. Maybe it’s because she’s been acting in front of a camera since she was, like, three – maybe it’s just because she’s smart. After Hayden was done we removed the green screen and filmed the backplate – in this case the hillside and ocean view.

Later Eric Grenaudier and Mark Spatny, our lead visual effects supervisor and visual effects producer from STARGATE went to a train yard and shot film of a train rushing by. This was all put together as a digital split, with the train yard integrated into the ocean background and the green screen of Hayden. Then, as Hayden jumped into the air – she is replaced by a digital animated version of Claire and a completely digital Peter flys into frame and grabs her. Milo Ventimiglia had, previously, been digitally scanned for this sequence so that we could create a digital version of him. After all that was put together we added the kind of icons you see in the eyepiece of a camera and horizontal scan lines. The scan lines annoyed Eric Grenaudier and he argued against them because he feels modern cameras are better than that. But, to me they clarify the story to the audience and they make the scene more reminiscent of what was done on the pilot. I don’t know what you thought of this scene, but for me we got way more than I was expecting… I had expected the digi-Peter to just be a blur, but even though it’s quick there is a real level of detail as he flies in and grabs her – and the integration of the train is excellent.

And, getting back to my original point, even though there is a technical complexity to the way we post-produced this scene – it is really very simple… all just one shot that we completed in less than an hour of production time. And of course all of this was storyboarded.

HAYDEN ON GREEN SCREEN

COSTA VERDE BACKPLATE

TRAIN BACKPLATE

DIGI PETER PETRELLI

THE FINAL COMPOSITE SHOT

THE FINAL SHOT WITH CAMERA ICONS

Of course, as I always say, the cool visual affects and stunts and cool shots we do must be the salt on the HEROES meal, not the main course. Hayden’s heartfelt performance is the key to why it all really works.

Now while we waited a few weeks for Hayden – we had to wait a few months for Kristen Bell. At the end of season 2, when it became clear to Tim and the writers that a writer’s strike was imminent and that episode 11 would be our last one of the season – he was able to come up with a way to re-write episode 11 to wrap up the main stories… But, this was not the case with the storylines for Elle, Bob and HRG – they had all been left hanging. Now, unlike Hayden Panettiere, we did not have Kristen Bell under contract. She was off doing a Movie in Rome called WHEN IN ROME, and wouldn’t be available for four months – until we were in the middle of episode seven. Now we love having Kristen on the show – and I think she loves being here… So we made a deal to have her do a number of episodes for a block of time in August and September and we put the scenes in episode 2 on hold until she came back into town.

For me this meant that I had to plan out storyboard and budget every scene with Elle in May but not shoot them until August. In fact, by the time I got Kristen, she had already completed two later episodes of our show. It was frustrating for Tim and for NBC, because we never had a finished version of the episode to look at. With all of those scenes missing we could never watch the show as a continuity or even know if it’s timing would be too long or too short.

However, even though it took me months to get to it, the scene where Elle comes into HRG’s cell, followed by the sequence where HRG shoots Sylar, where Sylar returns to life, etc. etc. and the follow-up scene where Elle half-comes-to and the prisoners escape “Level 5” is one the favorite ones I’ve done. Maybe it’s because I had so long to think about it – maybe it’s because, for me, it was a high-pressure scene, a scene I knew had to be great. It was a very designed scene where I had to move from shot to shot quickly, and in a highly organized way. The shots are all very graphic and interesting and every shot tells a specific part of the story in a specific way. I, personally, love shooting in level five. The stark blockiness of the cells and corridor make the space very graphic and comic-booky. Anyway – I’m happy with that sequence – I hope you like it too.

One fortunate thing happened by shooting so late, though. By the time we’d gotten to this scene we had already shot through episode 8 and had cast through episode 10… This gave us a chance to bring in all the actors for the escape scene that we normally wouldn’t have had cast yet.

In fact this resulted in me taking one of my favorite pictures I’ve ever taken… As we were shooting the scene where Elle had shorted out the power and all the villains were escaping - a random moment occurred where all the actors were strolling back to their marks for “take two.” As always, I had my blog camera on me, and I saw an opportunity… I shouted “stop” and I quickly posed the guys. The A.D. and crew would get annoyed if I took too long so I just started shouting, “You, move there – and you, move there… All right, all of you look tough… YOU’RE BADASSES!” They all gave me their toughest looks and SNAP I took the picture – it took about 15 seconds to get. Yay!

The other scene worth talking about is when Suresh displays his new "bug-like" powers to Dania. As a director, there are some sets on our show that get challenging to shoot over and over again. (Both incarnations of the Bennet house and the halls of Primatech are like this for me.) But I never get tired of Isaac's loft. It is loaded with interesting angles and places to stage.

But the new twist for this ep. was that Suresh was to bug-crawl up the wall to the level of the ceiling. This (combined with some info the writers gave us about where this bug power was going) made it clear that we had to add a ceiling to the set.Up to now we've never had a ceiling on the set, even with all the low angles we shoot. The ceilings we very high - about 20 feet - so we never shot off them. This helped the director's of photography because they were able to light from above. Most sets on most normal shows don't have ceilings at all - because if you're shooting mostly at eye level you never see the ceilings. If you ever do see ceilings, on most shows, the grips drop a piece of stretched musilin (like canvas or cloth). Lighting from above the set is the norm.

But on HEROES we see ceilings all the time, and it makes lighting the sets challenging. Luckily our brilliant Emmy-nominated production designer, Ruth Ammon, really knows how to build lighting into her sets. Anyway, all that is just a long digression to say that, as of this episode, we added ceilings and had to change our lighting plan.

Anyway, early on there's a shot where Maya enters the loft - the camera is low and very wide and we push in past a foreground table from a wide shot of Maya coming down the stairs and into a low angle shot across her where we see Suresh at rest up in the girders of the ceiling. There's a couple of close ups and then Suresh drops down from the ceiling into a medium shot with a big smile on his face.

Now, we wanted this scene to be sexy - and sexy means shirts off - which means that there was no place to hide a traditional harness under Suresh's shirt. Sendhil had just a waist harness. He was hoisted up in the air and had to hang upside-down. Now, from what I've heard from the various actors I've hung upside down - hanging upside down hurts. Apparently the blood goes to your head and you get all goofy to the point of passing out, and every joint and muscle in your body hurts.

For the part where Sursh drops down - we had originally planned for a stunt man to do this bit. But Sendhil came to me and pleaded that he could and wanted to do it himself. Now - philosophically it's always better to have an actor do their own stunt - but if they do you should have (whatever it is) end in a big close up - so you know it's them.

Hanging upside-down was one problem, but this gag was much more complicated. Sendhil got hoisted by a winch to the ceiling where he then had to spin around in the original upside-down position and the riggers had to adjust the slack on the line so it was just right. As I say this, itself, hurt. Then we rolled and slated. Then Sendhil had to push off, do a flip in the air - which, on the harness is a much more unnatural action then flipping, say, off a diving board. Since he couldn't see the ground coming, Sendhil had to work off a count in his head as to when he touched down on the ground. The line was adjusted so he wouldn't break his legs - but what happened on the first 5 or 6 takes was that he under or overestimated the landing and ended up either bouncing back up, or hanging splayed out in mid-air three feet off the floor. After ten takes Sendhil finally hit one and stepped forward and said his line, but he and the camera (which was pushing in) weren't in harmony and hestepped out of frame. Three more failures occurred after that - and now I was starting to worry that Sendhil was too tired and beat up to ever get it. He was pouring sweat and was obviously exhausted. He was also getting angry and frustrated with himself.

Then, on take fourteen - he nailed it. The flip and landing were so perfect and, I think because he was so tired, his brain went into autopilot and he smiled and said "hello" like he was too-cool-for-school and that this was no big deal.

I yelled cut and, the part that may be a DVD extra someday, was Sendhil throwing his hands into the air and yelling "YEEEEAHHHHHHH!!!!!!". It's awesome when something like that works out.

OK that's enough for now. More next week.....onto the pictures!

Also – after the show tonight - check out NBC.com where I do commentary on this episode with James Kyson Lee and Brea Grant – as always we had a lot of fun.

SENDHIL (YES HE REALLY DID THAT STUNT HIMSELF) ON SET

SENDHIL EXAMINES THE TASTY MORSELS THAT HAVE SPRUNG UP ON HIS BACK

ALWAYS LOOKING OUT FOR THE FANS - I APPLY A LIGHT GLAZE OF OIL TO SENDHIL'S BODY

JACK, ASHLEY AND JESSALYN GILSIG

JUST ANOTHER DAY ON SET

MASI AND THE NEW GIRL BREA GRANT WITH A FRENCH VERSION OF "9TH WONDERS"

I love you all. Really, that is about all I am coherent enough to say right now. So glad to have the show back!

The storyline looks brilliant--the impact of changing the future from the point of view of the past? AWESOME twist.--the characters are interacting in cool, unexpected ways, and Angela Petrelli is in charge of the Company. And is apparently Sylar's mother.

Holy cow, you guys. I doff my imaginary hat to you all and wish for the power to time-travel to next Monday.

great episode! so excited about the next season...thanks for the post. I just have to know though, was the Mohinder bug story line an homage to Cronenberg's "The Fly?" Many of us seem to see a similarity and I just want to know if it was intentional..

I can't tell you how excited I am that the show is back! It feels like it's been forever since we've seen our heroes (and villains!) and this two-part premiere has pretty much blown me away. This season is going to ROCK! Much love <3

Yet another future where humanity is in danger of being completely destroyed? You've already done this one guys. I miss the emotional consequences, the exploration of relationships that added so much humanity to season one. This show now has all the subtlety of The A- Team.

The show is off to an amazing start, a friend of mine said, "It feels like a whole new show", and I agree.

This is what we've been waiting for. You would be proud Greg. My sister literally gasped twice in the episode, first when Sylar was in the door frame and Sylar had implied to HRG that he killed Claire.

("OMG, now he thinks his daughter's dead! Why would he do that?"

"uh... villain.")

And she didn't watch at all last season. If you had been there you would have seen the fear radiating off of her (Claire was her fav season one).

Also, the emotional aspect of the show IS back. Peter and Nathan, as always, seemed the heart of the episode when Peter asked for his brother's forgiveness. Claire's desperate need to understand her humanity was very touching as well.

I don't mind another looming apocalypse, it just seems almost like each one is a consequence for stopping the first. Final Destination-esque, if you will. The End of the World will happen, now mater what powers you have, there will be a time when you can't stop it. Sometimes (Future Peter) you make it worse.

A great first two episodes and (as usual for Heroes) I can't wait to see more!

Just to reply to what bob said, I wasn't disappointed at all by the Claire/Sylar scene. Claire's been through a lot, but she's never had to stand against someone like Sylar on her own. In the past, Peter, HRG, Hiro, etc have come in to challenge Sylar.

Now it was just the two of them. She can heal, but like she said that just makes her a perpetual victim. Besides, for all of her special-experiences, she's still a teenager at heart. Sylar, meanwhile, is a super powered killer with no remorse. The fact that Claire actually got a stabbing in on him is extraordinary.

Like Greg said in his last blog entry, I don't think Claire did any of the usual "stupid teen horror movie" stuff. The fear in her was palpable as she tried to get out, then defend herself, then finally hide before trying to make a break for it. I, for one, thought that scene was brilliant.

I liked the Clair/Sylar scene(s). She did what she could, given her circumstances. I also really enjoyed Mama Petrelli and the rest of the Petrelli clan and their story lines.

What I hated...Nikki/Jessica/whoever. Let's face it. The whole Nikki split personality/Micah storyline was a failure. It didn't go anywhere. It was a good thing to end it. Bringing back Ali Larter as a "new" character is a bad idea. First of all, whoever does her makeup should be ashamed of the white pancake slapped on her face in this episode. Secondly, Larter should never be shot in profile. Thirdly, she can't act. Time to kill her off for good. Oopps, I forgot. Nobody ever gets permanently offed in Heroes world.

I also hated the Hiro storyline. Even gullible, loveable Hiro of previous seasons isn't as stupid as he's currently being portrayed.

In general, I like the stuff where the Heroes use their brains, I hate the stuff where everyone acts like an idiot. Unfortunately about 50% of the Heroes appear to get their extraordinary physical abilities by shrinking their brain capacity.

Heroes is my favorite show and these 2 episodes were amazing! Since this is going to be a full season unlike season 2 I can tell the conflicts are going to be developed expertly by the writers. My personal favorite part was when Hiro stops time to catch Daphne and sees that trail in the air. Hiro is still my favorite character. His optimism, his comic book references, all great. By the way Maya's character is very undeveloped and she wasn't given much to do in this episode. I thought Linderman died in season 1! Also I can't wait to find out what the Level 5 villians will do.

Case you missed it- she's called the "Ice Queen" so that might explain the pale make-up.

Linderman is dead. For some reason only Nathan can see him.

I love the fact that the Ali Larter character keeps evolving. Each personality has a different power. I think this is Nikki's twin since there was no jump forward in time. Tracey was working for the governor at the same time Nikki was New Orleans.

I noticed Andre Royo in the credits but didn't see him in the episode. Was he one of the random villains or someone else?

I'm very happy that Jamie Hector is working on Heroes! He's an exceptional actor and if you've already got two actors who were on The Wire, why not try to get a few more? I don't think Dominic West is working on anything now. How about Jim True-Frost or Gbenga Akinnagbe? I'm just throwing that out there.

As whole I loved both episodes. I thought the writing and treatment of Claire was very touching. Also the sympathy given to Elle. Sylar is always awesome!!

But I have to get something off my chest. I love Maya, I was immediately sucked into her story and felt empathy for her plight. The writers appears to have forgotten what happened to her or just don‘t care.

Her brother was murdered by the man she feel in love with, who then shot her in the loft two days ago. But ohh the next day she’s absolutely fine with having sex with a man she barely knows in that room? I found her scene with Mohinder repulsive and very uncomfortable to watch.

Why so rushed and sudden? It wouldn’t have been so creepy to watch if it had been believably built up and pacing but no the man she hardly knows is ripping her clothes off and that’s ok. This is a woman that’s suffered trauma after trauma and there was no show of this?

Maya deserves much better treatment then this and as much sympathy offered to Claire and Elle. Do you care about her at all or is she just a slamming body men can drool over? Dania’s talented and she deserves better material then that.

She was never portrayed like this last season so why the sudden change? I have hope that this will change with the coming episodes and she will be more integrated and not just used for sex appeal.

If you thought the scene with Suresh and Maya was "sexy," you might want to rethink your definition of the word. A shirtless guy ripping off a woman's blouse doesn't automatically equal "sexy." I found the entire sequence creepy and disturbing, and felt the treatment of Maya's character was insensitive to the point where it bordered on offensive. This woman has been through unimaginable trauma, including the murder of her brother, only days before--not to mention that the last man she cared for betrayed and shot her. And yet she has no problem instantly jumping into bed with another attractive man she barely knows? How does that make the slightest bit of sense?

I know, I know, you feel like you have to throw in hot people having sex so you can reel in the adolescent male viewers. But couldn't you at least have built up a realistic, believable relationship first, instead of essentially committing character assassination on poor Maya? Some of us actually *do* watch the show for the plots and characters, not just to see hot, half-naked people making out.

I love this show in more ways than I can give words to. I'm thrilled with what I've seen so far; it feels like you took all the strong points of season one and layered on this eerie darkness I've never seen in the show before.

More specifically, since some people have vehemently expressed the opposing viewpoint, I love Ali's new role. I'll even put up with the fact that she's still running around in a corset half the time. Tracy is just that awesome. It's nice to finally have a female character that's not a cheerleader or a stripper.

My only problem was, like several other people have mentioned, the treatment of Mohinder and Maya. I can see why you had Mohinder suddenly become, like, furiously heterosexual; it's the initial high before what looks to be a long and painful descent. However, if I were Maya, the second he started leering at me, I would have gone for the bat again. I mean, this is the girl that ran from the Dominican Republic to New York and was actually going to attack Sylar with a plank of wood. She's suddenly all vulnerable and running around in clothes that are pretty much begging to be torn off? I've loved the wonder twins since their introduction, and I'm hoping that she gets a plotline other than having sex with absolutely everyone.

but i have to agree with the anonymous writers about the scene with mohinder and maya. maya was portrayed in a really bad light and the scene where mohinder rips off maya's top is not welcome at all.

other than that, it's amazing to see how the story unfolds - future peter trying to correct things, angela petrelli taking over bob, hiro trying to change the future, matt stuck in africa, etc. will there be any more scenes with molly? since she's very close to mohinder and matt, i'm sure she'll be concerned about how things are developing for them.

by the way, i thought the dialogue for kaito nakamura was a little wooden, and it was really funny when he scolded hiro via video over not opening the safe!

Thank you for the very enlightening blogs and wonderful pictures. It's a joy to be able to share in all of that great stuff. And of course, thanks for the awesome new episodes that have just begun gracing our screens. Cheers!

Hey Greg, I am so happy Heroes is back but...something isn´t right. I hope that *our* Peter will be back as soon as possible so we can have a lots of interaction between him and Nathan. And could be Claire less whinning, please? Oh, and I hope that Nathan will get rid of this God thing cos it´s terrible.And Hiro didn´t save the world twice. Nathan did :-)Those are just few things I did mind in the beginning.But otherwise, good job. Thanks for a good work.Ezri

So happy to read this blog again, and to watch Heroes season3!Thanks guys for this great start!Dense, epic, fast but still easy to follow.I love most of the new arcs. Even Matt in his desert is funny when speaking with Turtle:)I just hope we won't have another arc like Hiro in Ancient Japan! (Japan is STILL feudal, you know!...)Nathan is going through a mystical phase: Well, as long as he speaks with Linderman and not with Virgin Mary, it's ok i guess...Sylar is sylaresque at his top! He is i think the guy that brings the most clever humor in Heroes, with his cynism and his cold way of beeing. Much more funny than Hiro, if you ask me. Not at the same level...And so surprising! I just loved the scenes with Claire! ('it's disgusting!':) )Even the hide-and-seek was really scary!Peter is messing with Time, as usual...I wait to be able to get the whole picture about that.I just hope he won't get to the irish girl.The level 5 is an awsome scene too!With Sylar confronting Elle: I enjoyed the gun turned into Gold! I know it's not a lot but wow anyway, it's full of meanings right?No more Bob, i liked the guy (plus he was speaking so slow it was heaven to understand him for us foreigners;)Elle seems to turn from a Comics Vamp into a 'real' woman and that is great.She'll get depths if she stays in the show i guess.I'm very happy to see Jessalyn Back (Claire's real mother) i think this character has a lot to dig. Though i agree about the Very Caricatural 'Remember me? i can produce fire in my hand!'but i think these little childish thingies are hommages to Comics books i guess, where the characters are very demonstrative.And, yesss:Mama Petrelli is on the lead! Wow: it will rock and roll I'm sure:)I really like Momo! (Mohinder) He's absolutely changing and it's sooo funny! Sendhil always said that he never wanted an ability .lol! Plus I like the idea of an ability changing physically the character: its new and can be fun! True that it reminds us of 'the Fly' a wonderful movie...But no matter.I don't agree with 'the poor Maya' getting almost raped by Momo: I think it shows Momo's new self-assurance, plus i'm not sure the action takes place just after she got shot. It might be some weeks later no? Plus when one mourns, one can need tenderness... So it's an awsome start for the new season! THanks a lot guys!

Leana: No one said that Mohinder almost raped Maya, that‘s not the case. We’re offended that Maya is being used and treated poorly by the writers.

A year could have past but it wouldn’t have mattered when a day before they had sex she was clearly uncomfortable with him simply touching her. It was not believable or realistic. They had nine months to think of what to do with Maya, well aware that she’s one of the most disliked characters on the show and I can’t help think they just said: “oh Dania’s got a hot body, lets see some skin! Oh better give her some importance to the plot…her blood will *indirectly* bring big changes!” She was shot and killed a few days before, her twin is dead and …nothing, no development or show of concern.

I’ve already seen her being labelled a slut and easy and I’m so disappointed, I really hoped people would warm to her but they‘ve shot her in the foot before she even had a chance. She’s got potential, her power could come in very handy in helping capture the villains and I for one can’t wait to see her interact with Sylar again. I like that she’s got a more feisty attitude but please stop blatantly objectifying her (ie: making her wear a midriff in the middle of March), it’s not doing her character any favours.

Expressing my concerns probably won’t make a difference seeing as you’ve already filmed most of this volume but I felt I had to say something.

Hey Greg. Very interesting to read your blog after seeing the actual show!

Good to have the show back but please allow some time for character development! That's what makes this show stand out from bad B-movies. These two first episodes were too fast paced to allow us much time to care about the characters! Ali Larter as YET another character is getting tiresome... and I totally agree about Mohinder and Maya's scenes: They both seemed so out of character! Their relastionship is very interesting but I mean... she still calls him"professor Suresh" in her school girl outfit moments before he shags her in the lab!?!? Give them time please!

Otherwise an agreeable start. Elle is great! I know Micah will return soon but I hope we get some kind of conclusion about Monica soon though...

Oh, I just had to post on this one too. Love the pics, dude...hilarious! It's great to see that you guys seem to enjoy making the show as much as we love watching it. And, just to reiterate: LOVED the premiere. It kicked all kinds of ass. I could list the reasons - but you *know* why it rocked, right? You made it after all. I will say this - the ever expanding Petrelli family, lead by the awesome Angela, is one of the best aspects of this show. And those actors work so wonderfully together, it's just a pleasure to watch. Actually, everyone on Heroes does a great job! Am I being too gushy? Sorry, but it's days after the airing, and I'm still buzzing. Great work! Thanks for sharing your blog, Greg, and here's to another ripping episode next week!

One thing I think I noticed that no one else seems to have mentioned: was the color-coding back for the various locales (blue for NYC, Las Vegas washed-out for Africa, IhopeIhopeIhope red for New Orleans when we get there)? I loved that particular touch in S1 and really missed it last year.

Count me in as one who is tentatively excited, although there are still problems. The good stuff first.

The show needs more Angela - she sparkled in every scene she was in, and I'm looking forward to seeing her interact with Sylar.Elle was also great, as was HRG. The Sylar/Claire stalking scenes worked well and were very creepy.I'm liking Daphne so far.

The meh:Why must Hiro's storylines hinge upon him being stupid? The same goes for Peter. I'm finding Nathan's story to be dull so far, and am not impressed with Ms. Strauss. I mostly feel sorry for Ali Larter - can't you guys write her a character who actually keeps her clothes on and has some dignity?

The Bad: As others have said, the Maya and Mohinder scenes were both disturbing and repulsive. I would be even more offended if I didn't hate her with a passion, but my dearest hope is that in episode 3 Mohinder will wake next to her corpse, realize he's killed her and then have to cope with that. At least then she'd have some relevance and not be annoying. Mohinder's motivations didn't come across at all - he's never expressed an interest in having an ability before, yet now he stupidly shoots himself up? Where did that come from?

The unanswered questions: How did Sylar get from Mohinder's lab in NYC to CA within minutes? He was shooting up in the alley when Nathan was shot, so does he have some kind of flying or teleporting ability? And how did he get back to the NY facility so quickly? Why didn't Claire heal herself while he had the top of her skull off? Maya has apparently been in the country illegally for around 24 hours. She has no money. It's NYC in March. Yet she's wearing skin-tight white pants, stiletto heels, an off the shoulder midriff baring blouse and makeup and jewelry. And jumping into bed with Mohinder with no hesitation. The only explanation is that she's found herself a street corner to work and is doing a brisk business.

I think Mohinder has some super cockroach like ability. Soooo he has some super human sex pheromones working on Maya. That would explain her sudden willingness to sleep with a man she was still very formal with, calling him "Dr Suresh" a minute before the sex.

No excuse for her clothes but the shows offensive way to inject “sexy” by using Maya. The woman is beautiful covered in sweat and dirt, you don’t need to make her look like a street walker. I have never, ever got the impression that Maya gives a shit about the way she looks either, so it‘s just doubly weird for her to dress like that so suddenly.

Just to let you know that you have some serious continuity issues on the show.

Another Maya issue. She just found out her brother was murdered by the guy she cared about and trusted, and who Alejandro warned her was bad news. Yet she's wearing bright colors and makeup and jewelry less than 24 hours later, jumping into bed with Mohinder, and shows no signs of being in mourning or even being upset at all. She never even mentions Alejandro. Additionally, having her act as a moral compass for Mohinder is pretty laughable, since she's proven to be a murderer and now appears to be narcissistic or sociopathic to the same degree as Sylar.

By the way, what happened to Elle's cast? She had it at the end of season 2 and season 3 starts immediately afterwards, yet there's no cast.

How did Hiro go from burying Adam alive to his new office and manage to get bored silly in a matter of minutes? Again, season 2 ended with Nathan being shot. Season 3 opened with him bleeding, so season 3 picks up immediately after the end of season 2. The last we saw of Hiro he had just buried someone. And why no emotional follow up from Hiro on this? Shouldn't he feel slightly guilty?

Sylar's teleportation - at the end of season 2 he's in an alley in New York City near Isaac's studio. At the beginning of season 3 he's in California, stalking Claire. Later that same day he's back in New York killing Bob. Can he fly or teleport or something?

So, Mohinder's sent Molly away. He's left alone in his apartment with Maya, who's just discovered that her brother was brutally murdered by a man who exploited her naive crush on him until he had no use for her, at which point he shot her and abandoned her in a foreign country with no one to turn to. Mohinder's just been forced to help the man who killed his father and put him through no small amount of trauma in season one, not to mention he has been tricked and puppetted by the clandestine company he had originally been sent to destroy.

I refuse to believe that wild lab table sexins are in the forefront of either of their minds.

I wouldn't have minded, of course, if some sort of mutual attraction had been built up over the course of a few episodes, at least. Say Mohinder is forced into helping Maya via black tears of death; she stays with him for a week or so, and he works out the answer, instead of spontaneously coming up with it in fifteen minutes (although to be fair, strokes of genius do happen, and the deus ex machina adrenaline revelation is not at all what I have a problem with). During that time, he and Maya converse, at first about the morality and social ripple effects of people with abilities becoming more prevalent in society - a way to work in some philosophy, and ground the show in the real world a bit more than it was in season 2 - and then about each other, their backgrounds, Maya's journey, Mohinder's (father's) research. A few episodes in, we could see the two having tea; Mohinder makes some snide remark, Maya laughs, we see that a bond is forming. She confides in him, he understands, he promises her that she's not to blame for any of what happened to her, that her brother's death was not her fault. She's able to deal with the new layer of guilt that's been added to her already heavy burden. They each begin to realize that the other is very, very nice, and very, very attractive. However, neither makes a move (see first paragraph).

Mohinder figures out how the abilities work; Maya is alarmed at the prospect of other people having her ability. Mohinder promises he'll only find a cure, but sneaks behind Maya's back and injects himself with the serum. She finds him on the ceiling the next morning, and only then, backed up by success-driven cockiness and his heightened state, does he muster the hubris to take their relationship to the next level. From there, you could pretty much go anywhere you were planning to with them, but their relationship would be so much more realistic and easier to get invested in.

What's done is done, and I'm happy to see two of my favorites together all the same, but for future reference, the audience won't get bored with a little exposition if it means a more meaningful and believable connection between two strong characters. Peter and Simone made a better couple than Peter and Caitlin for exactly the same reasons. All legitimate relationships have their roots in a bond that's something other than pure sexual attraction or circumstantial convenience.

(I'm only this long-winded and critical because I love the show so much. :B Premiere was epic and fabulous, in all other respects.)

Been a fan since day 1, but this opener was pretty bad. The plot was very lose, as if lots of different writers wrote the script separately. Hope the storyline gets better... (Some of the storylines which seems like it will fail are... Mohinder's new powers/sexuality with Maya, Tracy... absolutely no mention at all of Micah and Monica, and Parker in the middle of the Desert.) These plotlines seems to be like the Hiro in Japan's past storyline.. pretty bad. PLEASE have the writes fix this soon, this season is already losing to Dancing with the "F"ing stars!

Loved it! I am always amazed at how much quality is put in every episode -- this is a TV series after all and everyone seems to forget it. now if i could just get my hands on some of these comic props :) french for the win!

Im coming back only to add this, about the Momo/Maya so called sexy scene...In this blog, most posts are talking about it, but in France, not even one noticed (except to say that they both deserved some relaxation: its only a kind of massage after all, having sex is no big deal). And i read a lot of posts about season 3.Then i went to spanish forums too: the same: not a word about it. It shocked 'only' U.S people: Might be cultural i think ;-)I thought it was interesting to notice...

I would like to address Leana's comment about the cultural context of the Mohinder/Maya sex scene.

We can all agree that America is much more Puritan than Europe. However, there were a lot of things that made this scene disturbing, primarily because it can only be interpreted in two possible lights, and in both cases the fact that the show has chosen to push these two as a 'supercouple' is highly disturbing.

One interpretation: Keeping in mind that this episode starts immediately after the end of Powerless...Maya traveled hundreds of miles, killing dozens of innocent people in her quest to get to Mohinder. She just found out that her brother was murdered by a man who she trusted, and who her brother had warned her against. She was then killed and brought back to life. And her response to all of this trauma apparently involves shopping for clothes suitable for clubbing, getting a makeover and having sex with a man she just met. This isn't normal. This is highly disturbing, because it tells us that Maya isn't who she pretended to be all through season 2. She's cold and calculating, and she doesn't even mention her dead brother, having apparently forgotten about him in less than 24 hours. Given this, it seems that she used Alejandro and discarded him, just like Sylar did, and she has some kind of plan now that involves manipulating and using Mohinder.

The other possible interpretation is this: There's still something wrong with Maya, given that her reaction to her brother's murder is to go shopping for clubbing clothes and get a makeover. However, she just met Mohinder. She refers to him as 'Doctor Suresh'. She only lets him rip off her clothing when she's close to him after he's injected himself. It's possible he's giving off some kind of pheromones or something similar. Given that, what we saw was an on-screen rape. There's no sugarcoating it. If he had drugged her drink it would be the same thing.

So, as viewers, we have two views of this scene - Maya is a ho, who has lied and manipulated her way into Mohinder's life, or Mohinder is a rapist. Both of these make people uncomfortable, for obvious reasons. We've grown to love Mohinder over the past two seasons, and having him turn into a rapist is something that is impossible to recover from. The only acceptable ending here is for him to die, which sucks for the fans. Maya as a sociopath has a better outcome due to the fact that viewers hate her - hopefully Mohinder will figure out her plan, thwart it and we'll be rid of her.

In either case, the fact that NBC and their publicity department sees this pairing as hot and sexy is disturbing. Most shows don't try to cast rape in a positive light simply because the rapist is sexy.

The cultural issue is a really interesting one - I'm from the UK and the scene didn't bother me at all. I didn't see it in a 'rape' light, it was just a case of the writers having to juggle about 10 different plots every episode and they simply did not have time to build up a believable relationship between Maya and Mohinder. And as for Maya getting over the death of her brother remarkably quickly - remember, this is the Heroes that had Nathan grow a full-on beard over the course of a weekend. Continuity has never been a major concern!

Plus - why the hell is everyone going on about one little sex scene when this episode ended with the revelation that Sylar is a long-lost Petrelli?! Priorities, people!

Delivering a new dimension for hardcore Maple Story players with the addition of a fourth job and some free maple mesos, this is launched today. Maple Story players will have reached a high enough level to achieve the 4th Job or some necessary maplestory mesos, which begins this week. Many people can cost their own cheap mesos to gain themed dessert and costumes among their many posts. The addition of the 4th Job provides further depth to an already intricate and complex maple story mesos in game. At Leafre, players find the new upgrades can receive from mesos and also party with other elite players.

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